We’ve read countless reports during this election cycle about disenfranchisement, suppression and intimidation of voters in the press. We’ve seen people being thrown out of campaign meetings because of their color, their religion, their personal opinion. We’ve seen people being physically assaulted and abused. we’ve heard of polling stations being closed, or wiped completely off the map, to ensure that fewer minorities have a chance to vote easily. Now the extreme right, through Ann Coulter, appears to be taking the whole one step further, and in a manner which should awaken fear and loathing in every single person throughout the United States of America.

Her Twitter post this morning suggests that only people whose forebears were born in the United States should be allowed to vote. I write ‘suggest’ because I am sure Coulter will claim that is not what she meant, that she has been taken out of context, and that she was merely implying that if it was so, the results would be different after today.

Screenshot Source: Twitter / Ann Coulter

Regardless of which, the very idea that only people whose grandparents were born in the United States should vote is abhorrent and goes against everything our country should stand for. It reminds us of the laws enacted in Germany in the Thirties by the fascists whereby citizenship had to be proven, by producing birth certificates of a person’s grandparents and, to clear up the religious side and prevent Jews being able to sneak in, their religious leanings.

Could this be the future for the United States of America when a certain party or person comes to power? I am not suggesting that Donald Trump would consider, or be capable or forcing through, such a piece of legislation, but I can imagine several thousand people rubbing their hands in glee, and checking their ancestors.

The amusing part of the whole, the suggestion that Trump would be elected, is the impossibility of it all. Trump would not be eligible to vote and, if I have read things properly, only one of his direct relatives would be. Which means he would also not be eligible, if the extreme right takes this to its full conclusion, to stand for election as President.

No matter how it was meant, or how people read it, this comment from Coulter has no place in a democratic society and she, along with all those who support the idea, who have marked the Tweet as a favorite her comment, should be vilified and educated in democracy, the Constitution and reality.